The Beverly Hillbillies

People have always said The Beverly Hillbillies were rather strongly influenced by the characters of L'il Abner particularly Jethro (L'il Abner), Elly May (Daisy Mae), and Granny (Mammy Yokum) but I always felt it was more physical resemblence than the actual character but after watching the first L'IL ABNER movie, made in the early years of the comic strip, the resemblence is even more startling. Abner, like Jethro, eats like a hog and even though an idiot "hisself" he has more education than the rest of the yokels, Daisy Mae like Elly May is being raised by her granny (Granny Scraggs, a character that apparently fell by the wayside in the comic strip later on and was never around in the later years when Abner and Daisy Mae were married) who tells her gorgeous early twentysomething grandaughter she better get a husband soon as her best years are behind her!

The Hillbillies get the upper hand do to being better written than this film and having better actors but I loved this cast too and thought they were all great although Martha O'Driscoll seems a bit too citified to be Daisy Mae and though lovely lacks the vavavoom factor.